This article analyses the Swedish case of the government's funding for equity, which annually provides over 600 million euros to improve equity. Being one of the largest funding schemes ever for work towards educational equity it also provides full autonomy for local education authorities (LEAs) to use the money at their discretion. By studying…

This paper uses a case study of an Israeli teacher leadership initiative to explore a mode of educational governance that employs 'bottom-up' logic and discourse. The authors analyse the origins of this initiative, and -- through a policy-making ethnography of the initiative's enactment at the district level -- show how it is sustained and…

Despite a long history of local control of schools, educational issues have become increasingly contested at higher levels of government as battles are fought in state and federal venues and along partisan lines. In light of this change as well as recent battles over school responses to COVID-19 and schools' roles in combating systemic racism, we…

School-based education in England has undergone significant changes since 2010, with a huge expansion of academies, schools outside local authority control, funded directly by central government. Academies and local authority (LA) maintained schools are subject to different legislative and regulatory frameworks. This paper focuses on the…

When the state of Texas took control of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in the summer of 2023, it marked the end of a multi-year legal battle between the district and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the beginning of a community-led campaign to re-take control of the district. Since, students and community groups have rallied to…

Over the last decade the governance of primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands has by no means become simpler. This paper sketches recent policy developments and their consequences for the leadership of Boards of Multiple Schools (BMSs) and their school leaders. Thereof we describe the challenges BMSs in the Netherlands currently face to…

Democratically elected school boards in the United States play a crucial role in school governance because they enable community voice in educational practices and programs. Research on locally controlled boards finds they can be undemocratic and unproductive. However, little research has been conducted in rural or small towns, where local control…

Purpose: In the wake of school board protests nationwide, it is essential for educational leaders, policymakers, and researchers to understand locally controlled educational governance. The stability of educational districts depends on superintendents navigating relationships with their school boards, yet little research exists that addresses…

During and for many years after the 2008-10 Great Recession, financial crises in districts across the country triggered varying state involvement in those districts' finances and governance, up to and including complete takeover. While these actions were most prominent in a handful of states, all states have laws that enable them to intervene in…

Kappan's editor talks with political scientist Sara Dahill-Brown about the new realities of educational decision making under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which follows nearly two decades of strong federal influence over K-12 policies at the state and district levels. Rather than promoting one-size-fits-all approaches to school improvement,…

Prepared for a Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) Strategic Education Governance Learning Seminar, this working paper analyses the functioning of accountability mechanisms in the Flemish school system from a complexity perspective, particularly accountability of equity funding in primary and secondary education. The paper shows…

Districts around the country are increasingly experimenting with the design and launch of autonomous district schools as a way to increase innovative, high-quality school options; bring decision-making closer to students; retain talented leaders; and prevent students and families from leaving the district for charter schools. In this report, the…

Understanding why and how stakeholders become involved in education governance, and with what consequence, is critical to the success of any equity-minded participatory policy. This area of inquiry is especially salient to California's education law called the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). LCAP requires local district officials to…

"Education, Equity, and the States" examines how variations in state governance determine how federal initiatives are implemented and makes recommendations for approaching reform from this perspective. The book defines the key ways in which state policy environments differ from one another, illustrates how those differences matter, and…

This article focuses on the transformative academies policy in England. Based on an analysis of documentary evidence, we argue that the policy has resulted in the fragmentation of the state-funded school system and stark variation between academies, with those within multi-academy trusts (MATs) having no legal identity. We examine the variation…